Making a Wooden Kitchen Sign

June 20, 2018

Upfront I will say, in general, I am not a big fan of word signs but when I saw this phrase, it fit us too a tee. I couldn’t resist. So we went on the hunt for a board thinking we needed it to be about 8 inches wide. The first place we looked was in the shipping container. Jim has boards stashed all over the place. Like a squirrel with a nut.

Looking for the perfect board

We found a board that happened to be 9 inches wide so we took it into the workshop and cut it to 24 inches in length. Better too long than too short. We weren’t sure what size we wanted it to be but it turns out 9 x 24 inches was good. So we ran with it.

Here was the board we were working with.

Pine board

Once we had the size nailed down, Jim gave it a quick sanding. I didn’t want it too smooth but smooth enough to paint letters on without pulling out my hair.

Light sanding

I planned to whitewash it but also wanted the background to be a little richer color, so I put a coat of Minwax Provincial stain on first and let that dry overnight. Turns out it wasn’t necessary.

Stained board

While I was working on the board, Jim was getting the words sized and printed on the computer.

Looks about right

Then it was on to the whitewash. Less is more so I started of with a light touch, and kept adding paint until I got it to where I wanted it to be. At this point there was a decision to be made. Either hand paint the letters or print out the letters on adhesive sheet labels, like I did with this monogramed sign, and cut them out with scissors. I figured I could have them all painted by the time I got them all cut out. Plus the capital letters would be individual and be hard to line up properly. So, paint it is.

First, Jim printed everything out and I trimmed it.

Ready to trace

Then I traced the lettering onto the board using tracing paper.

Tracing the words

Next up was painting. I decided to use a paint pen. You hold it just like a pen but paint flows out. I have a few that are different size tips and this is the first time I used them. Certainly saved a lot of time but I think I like the look of paint from a brush better. Not that anyone will notice.